“My mom held me and then boom! I was crying ‘mom’ as I hit the floor. I took her phone and typed, ‘Pull the plug.’ She cried and cried, and I remember her saying, ‘I’m not gonna let you die.’”
‘My fingers were numb, but I blamed the cold weather. I had feelings of rug burn across my legs. ‘Mommy, my chest feels funny.’ Those were the last words she would hear me say.’
‘He thought I was drunk, but after hearing me slam my head several times due to seizing, he approached the stall and witnessed me convulsing on the floor.’
“I was rushed to the hospital with several Marines holding me down. My consciousness was fading. The first 4 hospitals turned me away. I awoke to a half-paralyzed body.”
‘He was blue, and his skin was covered with deep purple spots. He wasn’t crying. The whole room was especially quiet.’
“They had no clue what was going on with his skin. They thought maybe I had passed on an infection. Our nurse crouched down next to me. ‘This is going to get better. We will get through this.'”
‘Stop pushing!,’ my doctor said. ‘No time to wait. His heart rate keeps dropping with every push, I cannot let this keep happening.’
“The epidural I was given hours ago never worked, I was feeling every intense pain throughout my labor. I clung to his words.”
‘She only used her right hand. She kept her left arm close to her, tightly clenched into a little fist. Deep down I knew what her diagnosis would be.’
“Her pediatrician asked, ‘Does she switch toys back and forth between both hands?’ When I answered, ‘No, she’s still not using her left hand at all,’ she became immediately concerned. Something was ‘wrong’ with my perfect, healthy baby girl.”
‘Despite having 5 beautiful children, I still couldn’t shake the feeling that our family was not complete. I looked around and thought, ‘Surely we have room for one more, right?’
“At only 17 years old, while still a senior in high school, I vividly remember the intense fear I felt when I looked at that pregnancy test. What would become of me? I had always been the good girl – the one that got good grades and followed the rules.”
‘At the top of my lungs I was screaming, ‘Please God, please don’t take him, I know you hear me, don’t take him!’ I looked down and saw his eyes rolling back in his head.’
“He was a Marine, tall, handsome, had every quality I dreamed of as a little girl in a husband. He was my ‘rock.’ Years went by, and we continued to drift apart emotionally. Then, our lives changed that day.”
‘My worst nightmare was happening. I laid on the OR table gasping for air. ‘Help me! I can’t breathe!’ I stared into my mother’s eyes. I could see the fear written all over her face.’
“A huge splash of fluid hit the curtain in my face. All I could think was, ‘I’m going to die right here. I was born on this day, and I’m going to die on this day giving birth.'”
After I found out I was pregnant, my dad suffered a massive stroke. I snuggled up under his mighty arms and told him our secret. He smiled and said, ‘I can’t wait to meet her!’
“Thinking he was confused, I told him we didn’t know if it was a girl or a boy yet. He just winked at me.”
‘What is happening? I am trying to move but nothing is happening. Am I going to die?’
“My arms weren’t doing what I wanted them to. They felt clumsy and my thoughts seemed to be in slow motion. The next thing I knew, I was collapsing onto the floor of my closet.”
